OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Information Potential Auto-Encoders
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, we suggest a framework to make use of mutual information as a regularization criterion to train Auto-Encoders (AEs). In the proposed framework, AEs are regularized by minimization of the mutual information between input and encoding variables of AEs during the training phase. In order to estimate the entropy of the encoding variables and the mutual information, we propose a non-parametric method. We also give an information theoretic view of Variational AEs (VAEs), which suggests that VAEs can be considered as parametric methods that estimate entropy. Experimental results show that the proposed non-parametric models have more degree of freedom in terms of representation learning of features drawn from complex distributions such as Mixture of Gaussians, compared to methods which estimate entropy using parametric approaches, such as Variational AEs.
Experimental Study of Compressed Stack Algorithms in Limited Memory Environments
Venue: arXiv cs.DS 2017
Year: 2017

The {\em compressed stack} is a data structure designed by Barba {\em et al.} (Algorithmica 2015) that allows to reduce the amount of memory needed by an algorithm (at the cost of increasing its runtime). In this paper we introduce the first implementation of this data structure and make its source code publicly available. Together with the implementation we analyze the performance of the compressed stack. In our synthetic experiments, considering different test scenarios and using data sizes ranging up to $2^{30}$ elements, we compare it with the classic (uncompressed) stack, both in terms of runtime and memory used. Our experiments show that the compressed stack needs significantly less memory than the usual stack (this difference is significant for inputs containing $2000$ or more elements). Overall, with a proper choice of parameters, we can save a significant amount of space (from two to four orders of magnitude) with a small increase in the runtime ($2.32$ times slower on average than the classic stack). These results holds even in test scenarios specifically designed to be challenging for the compressed stack.
Optimal performance of heterogeneous networks bases on the bit rate
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2017
Year: 2017

Networks Lte(4G) and Wi-Fi complementarity establishes a heterogeneous system of wireless and mobile networks. We study and analyze the optimal performances of this heterogeneous system based on the bit rate, the blocking probability and user connection loss. Random Waypoint (RWP) is the user mobility model. Users provided mobile terminal equipped with multiple accesses interfaces. We developed a Markov chain to estimate the performances obtained from the heterogeneous networks system, which allowed us to propose an average bit rate value in a sub-zone of this system then the average blocking probability user connection in this zone. We also proposed a sensitivity factor of maximal decrease of these selection network parameters. This factor informs about the heterogeneous networks congestion and dis-congestion system.
Hybrid LISA Precoding for Multiuser Millimeter-Wave Communications
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

Millimeter-wave (mmWave) communications plays an important role for future cellular networks because of the vast amount of spectrum available in the underutilized mmWave frequency bands. To overcome the huge free space omnidirectional path loss in those frequency bands, the deployment of a very large number of antenna elements at the base station is crucial. The complexity, power consumption and costs resulting from the large number of antenna elements can be reduced by limiting the number of RF chains. This leads to hybrid precoding and combining, which, in contrast to the traditional fully digital precoding and combining, moves a part of the signal processing from the digital to the analog domain. This paper proposes new algorithms for the design of hybrid precoders and combiners in a multiuser scenario. The algorithms are based on the previously proposed Linear Successive Allocation method developed for the traditional fully digital version. It successively allocates data streams to users and suppresses the respective interstream interference in two stages, which perfectly matches the hybrid architecture. Furthermore, a low-complexity version is developed by exploiting the typical structure of mmWave channels. The good performance of the proposed method and its low-complexity version is demonstrated by simulation results.
Towards Grounding Conceptual Spaces in Neural Representations
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2017
Year: 2017

The highly influential framework of conceptual spaces provides a geometric way of representing knowledge. It aims at bridging the gap between symbolic and subsymbolic processing. Instances are represented by points in a high-dimensional space and concepts are represented by convex regions in this space. In this paper, we present our approach towards grounding the dimensions of a conceptual space in latent spaces learned by an InfoGAN from unlabeled data.
Towards a theory of word order. Comment on "Dependency distance: a new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2017
Year: 2017

Comment on "Dependency distance: a new perspective on syntactic patterns in natural language" by Haitao Liu et al
Dynamic, modeling and simulation of an underactuated system
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2017
Year: 2017

In this paper, is used the Lagrangian classical mechanics for modeling the dynamics of an underactuated system, specifically a rotary inverted pendulum that will have two equations of motion. A basic design of the system is proposed in SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD software, which based on the material and dimensions of the model provides some physical variables necessary for modeling. In order to verify the results obtained, a comparison the CAD model simulated in the environment SimMechanics of MATLAB software with the mathematical model who was consisting of Euler Lagrange's equations implemented in Simulink MATLAB, solved with the ODE23tb method, included in the MATLAB libraries for the solution of systems of equations of the type and order obtained. This article also has a topological analysis of pendulum trajectories through a phase space diagram, which allows the identification of stable and unstable regions of the system.
Human-like Clustering with Deep Convolutional Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

Classification and clustering have been studied separately in machine learning and computer vision. Inspired by the recent success of deep learning models in solving various vision problems (e.g., object recognition, semantic segmentation) and the fact that humans serve as the gold standard in assessing clustering algorithms, here, we advocate for a unified treatment of the two problems and suggest that hierarchical frameworks that progressively build complex patterns on top of the simpler ones (e.g., convolutional neural networks) offer a promising solution. We do not dwell much on the learning mechanisms in these frameworks as they are still a matter of debate, with respect to biological constraints. Instead, we emphasize on the compositionality of the real world structures and objects. In particular, we show that CNNs, trained end to end using back propagation with noisy labels, are able to cluster data points belonging to several overlapping shapes, and do so much better than the state of the art algorithms. The main takeaway lesson from our study is that mechanisms of human vision, particularly the hierarchal organization of the visual ventral stream should be taken into account in clustering algorithms (e.g., for learning representations in an unsupervised manner or with minimum supervision) to reach human level clustering performance. This, by no means, suggests that other methods do not hold merits. For example, methods relying on pairwise affinities (e.g., spectral clustering) have been very successful in many scenarios but still fail in some cases (e.g., overlapping clusters).
On M-ary Distributed Detection for Power Constraint Wireless Sensor Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

We consider a wireless sensor network (WSN), consisting of several sensors and a fusion center (FC), which is tasked with solving an M-ary hypothesis testing problem. Sensors make M-ary decisions and transmit their digitally modulated decisions over orthogonal channels, which are subject to Rayleigh fading and noise, to the FC. Adopting Bayesian optimality criterion, we consider training and non-training based distributed detection systems and investigate the effect of imperfect channel state information (CSI) on the optimal maximum a posteriori probability (MAP) fusion rules and optimal power allocation between sensors, when the sum of training and data symbol transmit powers is fixed. We consider J-divergence criteria to do power allocation between sensors. The theoretical results show that J-divergence for coherent reception will be maximized if total training power be half of total power, however for non coherent reception, optimal training power which maximize J-divergence is zero. The simulated results also show that probability of error will be minimized if training power be half of total power for coherent reception and zero for non coherent reception.
Symplectomorphic registration with phase space regularization by entropy spectrum pathways
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2017
Year: 2017

The ability to register image data to a common coordinate system is a critical feature of virtually all imaging studies that require multiple subject analysis, combining single subject data from multiple modalities, or both. However, in spite of the abundance of literature on the subject and the existence of several variants of registration algorithms, their practical utility remains problematic, as commonly acknowledged even by developers of these methods because the complexity of the problem has resisted a general, flexible, and robust theoretical and computational framework. To address this issue, we present a new registration method that is similar in spirit to the current state-of-the-art technique of diffeomorphic mapping, but is more general and flexible. The method utilizes a Hamiltonian formalism and constructs registration as a sequence of symplectomorphic maps in conjunction with a novel phase space regularization based on the powerful entropy spectrum pathways (ESP) framework. The method is demonstrated on the three different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) modalities routinely used for human neuroimaging applications by mapping between high resolution anatomical (HRA) volumes, medium resolution diffusion weighted MRI (DW-MRI) and HRA volumes, and low resolution functional MRI (fMRI) and HRA volumes. The typical processing time for high quality mapping ranges from less than a minute to several minutes on a modern multi core CPU for typical high resolution anatomical (~256x256x256 voxels) MRI volumes.
Big Missing Data: are scientific memes inherited differently from gendered authorship?
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2017
Year: 2017

This paper seeks to build upon the previous literature on gender aspects in research collaboration and knowledge diffusion. Our approach adds the meme inheritance notion to traditional citation analysis, as we investigate if scientific memes are inherited differently from gendered authorship. Since authors of scientific papers inherit knowledge from their cited authors, once authorship is gendered we are able to characterize the inheritance process with respect to the frequencies of memes and their propagation scores depending on the gender of the authors. By applying methodologies that enable the gender disambiguation of authors, big missing data on the gender of citing and cited authors is dealt with. Our empirically based approach allows for investigating the combined effect of meme inheritance and gendered transmission. Results show that scientific memes do not spread differently from either male or female cited authors. Likewise, the memes that we analyse were not found to propagate more easily via male or female inheritance.
Base Station Selection for Massive MIMO Networks with Two-stage Precoding
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

The two-stage precoding has been proposed to reduce the overhead of both the channel training and the channel state information (CSI) feedback for the massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system. But the overlap of the angle-spreading-ranges (ASR) for different user clusters may seriously degrade the performance of the two-stage precoding. In this letter, we propose one ASR overlap mitigating scheme through the base station (BS) selection. Firstly, the BS selection is formulated as a sum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) maximization problem. Then, the problem is solved by a low-complex algorithm through maximizing signal-to-leakage-plus-noise ratio (SLNR). In addition, we propose one low-overhead algorithm with the lower bound on the average SLNR as the objective function. Finally, we demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed schemes through the numerical simulations.
Structured Best Arm Identification with Fixed Confidence
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2017
Year: 2017

We study the problem of identifying the best action among a set of possible options when the value of each action is given by a mapping from a number of noisy micro-observables in the so-called fixed confidence setting. Our main motivation is the application to the minimax game search, which has been a major topic of interest in artificial intelligence. In this paper we introduce an abstract setting to clearly describe the essential properties of the problem. While previous work only considered a two-move game tree search problem, our abstract setting can be applied to the general minimax games where the depth can be non-uniform and arbitrary, and transpositions are allowed. We introduce a new algorithm (LUCB-micro) for the abstract setting, and give its lower and upper sample complexity results. Our bounds recover some previous results, which were only available in more limited settings, while they also shed further light on how the structure of minimax problems influence sample complexity.
Probabilistic Motion Planning under Temporal Tasks and Soft Constraints
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2017
Year: 2017

This paper studies motion planning of a mobile robot under uncertainty. The control objective is to synthesize a {finite-memory} control policy, such that a high-level task specified as a Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) formula is satisfied with a desired high probability. Uncertainty is considered in the workspace properties, robot actions, and task outcomes, giving rise to a Markov Decision Process (MDP) that models the proposed system. Different from most existing methods, we consider cost optimization both in the prefix and suffix of the system trajectory. We also analyze the potential trade-off between reducing the mean total cost and maximizing the probability that the task is satisfied. The proposed solution is based on formulating two coupled Linear Programs, for the prefix and suffix, respectively, and combining them into a multi-objective optimization problem, which provides provable guarantees on the probabilistic satisfiability and the total cost optimality. We show that our method outperforms relevant approaches that employ Round-Robin policies in the trajectory suffix. Furthermore, we propose a new control synthesis algorithm to minimize the frequency of reaching a bad state when the probability of satisfying the tasks is zero, in which case most existing methods return no solution. We validate the above schemes via both numerical simulations and experimental studies.
Contributions to the Generalized Coupon Collector and LRU Problems
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2017
Year: 2017

Based upon inequalities on Subset Probabilities, proofs of several conjectures on the Generalized Coupon Collector Problem (i.e. CCP with unequal popularity) are presented. Then we derive a very simple asymptotic relation between the expectation of the waiting time for a partial collection in the CCP, and the Miss rate of a LRU cache.
Wireless Link Capacity under Shadowing and Fading
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

We consider the following basic link capacity (a.k.a., one-shot scheduling) problem in wireless networks: Given a set of communication links, find a maximum subset of links that can successfully transmit simultaneously. Good performance guarantees are known only for deterministic models, such as the physical model with geometric (log-distance) pathloss. We treat this problem under stochastic shadowing under general distributions, bound the effects of shadowing on optimal capacity, and derive constant approximation algorithms. We also consider temporal fading under Rayleigh distribution, and show that it affects non-fading solutions only by a constant-factor. These can be combined into a constant approximation link capacity algorithm under both time-invariant shadowing and temporal fading.
Sparsity Order Estimation from a Single Compressed Observation Vector
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2017
Year: 2017

We investigate the problem of estimating the unknown degree of sparsity from compressive measurements without the need to carry out a sparse recovery step. While the sparsity order can be directly inferred from the effective rank of the observation matrix in the multiple snapshot case, this appears to be impossible in the more challenging single snapshot case. We show that specially designed measurement matrices allow to rearrange the measurement vector into a matrix such that its effective rank coincides with the effective sparsity order. In fact, we prove that matrices which are composed of a Khatri-Rao product of smaller matrices generate measurements that allow to infer the sparsity order. Moreover, if some samples are used more than once, one of the matrices needs to be Vandermonde. These structural constraints reduce the degrees of freedom in choosing the measurement matrix which may incur in a degradation in the achievable coherence. We thus also address suitable choices of the measurement matrices. In particular, we analyze Khatri-Rao and Vandermonde matrices in terms of their coherence and provide a new design for Vandermonde matrices that achieves a low coherence.
A Mobile Geo-Communication Dataset for Physiology-Aware DASH in Rural Ambulance Transport
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2017
Year: 2017

Use of telecommunication technologies for remote, continuous monitoring of patients can enhance effectiveness of emergency ambulance care during transport from rural areas to a regional center hospital. However, the communication along the various routes in rural areas may have wide bandwidth ranges from 2G to 4G; some regions may have only lower satellite bandwidth available. Bandwidth fluctuation together with real-time communication of various clinical multimedia pose a major challenge during rural patient ambulance transport.; AB@The availability of a pre-transport route-dependent communication bandwidth database is an important resource in remote monitoring and clinical multimedia transmission in rural ambulance transport. Here, we present a geo-communication dataset from extensive profiling of 4 major US mobile carriers in Illinois, from the rural location of Hoopeston to the central referral hospital center at Urbana. In collaboration with Carle Foundation Hospital, we developed a profiler, and collected various geographical and communication traces for realistic emergency rural ambulance transport scenarios. Our dataset is to support our ongoing work of proposing "physiology-aware DASH", which is particularly useful for adaptive remote monitoring of critically ill patients in emergency rural ambulance transport. It provides insights on ensuring higher Quality of Service (QoS) for most critical clinical multimedia in response to changes in patients' physiological states and bandwidth conditions. Our dataset is available online for research community.
A Conceptual Model for Holistic Classification of Insider
Venue: arXiv cs.CY 2017
Year: 2017

The process through which an insider to an organization can be described or classified is lined within the orthodox paradigm of classification in which an organization considers only subject with requisite employee criterion as an insider to that organization. This is further clouded with the relative rigidity in operational security policies being implemented in organizations. Establishing investigation process in instances of misuse occurrence and or ascertaining the efficiency of staff member using such archaic paradigm is maligned with endless possibilities of uncertainties. This study, therefore, proposes a holistic model for which insider classification can be crystallized using the combination of qualitative research process and analysis of moment structure evaluation process. A full comprehension of this proposition could serve as a hinge through which insider misuse investigation can be thoroughly carried out. In addition, integrating this paradigm into existing operational security policies could serve as a metric upon which an organization can understand insider dynamics, in order to prevent misuses, and enhance staff management.
A Distributed Cooperative Control Framework for Synchronized Reconnection of a Multi-Bus Microgrid
Venue: arXiv cs.SY 2017
Year: 2017

One critical value microgrids bring to power systems is resilience, the capability of being able to island from the main grid under certain conditions and connect back when necessary. Once islanded, a microgrid must be synchronized to the main grid before reconnection to prevent severe consequences. In general, synchronization of a single machine with the grid can be easily achieved using a synchronizer. The problem becomes more challenging when it comes to a multi-bus microgrid with multiple distributed generators (DGs) and dispersed loads. All distributed generators need to be properly controlled in a coordinated way to achieve synchronization. This paper presents a novel bi-level distributed cooperative control framework for a multi-bus microgrid. In this framework, DGs work collaboratively in a distributed manner using the minimum and sparse communication. The topology of the communication network can be flexible which supports the plug-and-play feature of microgrids. Fast and deterministic synchronization can be achieved with tolerance to communication latency. Experimental results obtained from Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) simulation demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Fatiguing STDP: Learning from Spike-Timing Codes in the Presence of Rate Codes
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2017
Year: 2017

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) could play a key role in unsupervised machine learning applications, by virtue of strengths related to learning from the fine temporal structure of event-based signals. However, some spike-timing-related strengths of SNNs are hindered by the sensitivity of spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) rules to input spike rates, as fine temporal correlations may be obstructed by coarser correlations between firing rates. In this article, we propose a spike-timing-dependent learning rule that allows a neuron to learn from the temporally-coded information despite the presence of rate codes. Our long-term plasticity rule makes use of short-term synaptic fatigue dynamics. We show analytically that, in contrast to conventional STDP rules, our fatiguing STDP (FSTDP) helps learn the temporal code, and we derive the necessary conditions to optimize the learning process. We showcase the effectiveness of FSTDP in learning spike-timing correlations among processes of different rates in synthetic data. Finally, we use FSTDP to detect correlations in real-world weather data from the United States in an experimental realization of the algorithm that uses a neuromorphic hardware platform comprising phase-change memristive devices. Taken together, our analyses and demonstrations suggest that FSTDP paves the way for the exploitation of the spike-based strengths of SNNs in real-world applications.